About the characters

There are some very strong actors in the film, with very little to do. First, let's review the Ripley character as a frame of reference. Ripley was a very sympathetic character because she never signed up for any of the things she encountered. In the first film, she was just a pilot trying to go back to her daughter on Earth when she got caught in a monster movie. She was a skilled, intelligent woman, forced to battle a beast. Her friends were all killed. She was traumatized. Not an amazing character, but sympathetic. Then she woke up in a future where her education and experience were worthless. Her home has become an alien world. Her daughter died of old age. All she could do was be a day laborer. She dealt with it, and began to make a new life. She suffered the scars of her trauma. Totally sympathetic, and strong to boot. She agreed to join the space marines as an advisor, never to leave the ship. Her morals and leadership skills force her to enter the battlefield, where she unexpectedly becomes a mother, guardian and soldier. She uses her experience with the original Alien, which we gained with her, and her day laborer work experience to defeat the beast with brute strength. She wakes up to find her new daughter is dead, she's stuck with a bunch of rapists, and she's pregnant with a queen. And she uses her wits and leadership skills to muscle her way through all of it, making the necessary self sacrifice in the end. And she stops to make love to a doctor, reinforcing her as human in a very helpful way. This point becomes important in later paragraphs. Sigouney Weaver takes a fantastic character and gives her the strength and humanity that a terrific actor can bring. Though all the films are just really good monster movies, Weaver/Ripley push it over the top to make memorable films that significantly impact the 20th century science fiction landscape. I always want to be with her in the Alien films. All other characters are disposable, and all are eventually disposed of. Before continuing, please google "Doctor Mustard tonya harding 3045" and read message 3045. It teaches us a lot about the human condition. Now to the characters of Prometheus. MAJOR SPOILERS Elizabeth Shaw has great motivation. Raised by Catholic missionaries, witnessing the death of her parents, unclear how God could allow their suffering. She is driven by the idea of the creator, the beginnings. Her scientific theory sacrilegiously rejects the idea of an Earthly God, but still allows for a more intergalactic Creator beyond our planet. All the while she clings to the crucifix around her neck. Her theory and her religion are not contradictory in her eyes, but rather transcendent. We learn mid-film that she is unable to bear children, adding a little bit of depth to the character. It's all great setup, but beyond that paragraph there is little character growth, and her experiences don't much impact the rest of the film. She witnesses a lot, receives significant traumas, but she doesn't DO much of anything. She watches her boyfriend get burned alive, gives birth to a giant facehugger, spends the rest of the film running away. She plays no role in defeating any of the monsters. In fact one of the few actions she plays a direct role in is stealing a corpse from a tomb. The character arc is not so impressive. She is excited, then confused, then wrong, then terrified. In the end, her motivation is the same as the beginning. She wants to meet the creators. The only thing that has changed is the question. Instead of why did they make us, now she wants to know why do they want to kill us (with tortuous bio-warfare). The actress does a good job with the character, but she is a passive hero. I never miss her when she is off screen. In the original Alien films, I was never fully engaged unless Ripley was onscreen. She was a true hero. David the android is a good character. The best in the film actually. Cold and intellectual, with motives that seem completely separate from the rest of the crew. Had I never seen the 1979 film, I would be wild with curiosity about what this guy is doing. But ultimately he is all too similar to Ash from the first film. I know exactly what he is doing, while all the other characters seem unaware or uninterested (with the exception of Vickers). The actor manages to give David a sense of wonder and curiosity. He is the most charismatic actor in the film, and I am always engaged when he is onscreen. Charlize Theron's Vickers is a major embarrassment. She belongs in a late night Skinemax sci-fi porn. She presents herself as a bad ass queen bitch diva in charge, then completely fails to be in charge of anything. Then she oddly agrees to hook up with the captain of the ship, which adds nothing to the character or the film. I guess they were trying to show that this super strict leader had a human side, as they did with Ripley and the tragic Doctor Clemens in Alien 3. But they never actually made her believably in-charge. No one ever follows her orders or cares about her command role. Ultimately, she is a weak woman in a uniform that gets horny and sleeps with the captain, completely uninterested in the major scientific discoveries that are going on. And two of her scientists are truly in danger of dying (which she never seems to notice). What a strange waste of a brilliant actress. I forgot about Holloway. I remember very little about him, other than he is kind of scruffy and he follows Shaw around. And he hides his dangerous infection in order to get laid. More Skinemax material. The other scientists are total throw aways. They are introduced as charismatic (though cartoony) characters, then they do nothing but get scared and then killed. They never use their skills in any way. Total waste. And the Space Jockey? Without the presence of a xenomorph to chase people around, he steps into that role. Hooray for superior intellects. I had virtually no interest in the characters. The story carries the film. This is fine for a summer movie, but ultimately that's all it is. A good summer movie.